Turkey’s parliament votes in favor of constitutional reform in first round

Suspect in Istanbul Nightclub Attack Confesses, Officials Say

Prosecutor seeks up to 142 years in prison for jailed HDP co-chair

Roadside bomb in southeast Turkey kills three police officers

In Istanbul, three days of snowfall soothes terror-stricken residents

Foreign Politics

U.S. increases support for Turkish military operations in Syria

U.S. aircraft have begun regular aerial intelligence surveillance in support of Turkey’s offensive against the Islamic State in northwestern Syria, in anticipation of increased U.S. support for the flailing Turkish military operation around the town of al-Bab.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is no friend of the media. Since an attempted coup against him in July, he has jailed at least 144 journalists and shuttered or seized control of more than 150 media companies, according to Human Rights Watch. Now he is praising President-elect Donald Trump for his aggressive tone toward American news media.

Russia has agreed that the United States should be involved in talks on Syria’s political future slated to take place in the Kazakh capital of Astana later this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Jan. 12.

Turkey has invited Iraq’s Chief of General Staff Osman al-Ghanimi to Ankara for talks on both anti-terror fight and the status of the Bashiqa camp after Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım’s key visit to Baghdad over the weekend.

Turkey’s top bosses have warned of the serious economic risks facing the country, noting the urgent need for Turkey to strengthen key institutions and decrease political uncertainties. “[The measures taken so far] may lead to a short-term cure, but are not enough to save tomorrow,” said Turkish Industry and Business Association’s (TÜSİAD) high advisory board president, Tuncay Özilhan, on Jan. 12.

Turkish inflation could reach double digits in the first quarter for the first time in almost five years after the lira’s falls, two senior economy officials said on Monday, potentially putting more pressure on the central bank to hike interest rates.

President Tayyip Erdogan accused Turkey’s enemies on Thursday of using currency speculation to try to topple the state and urged the central bank to “thwart these games”, saying it had all the tools it needed after the lira plunged to record lows.

Deutsche Bank AG’s Turkish unit rejected claims by a pro-government newspaper that it’s plotting to undermine the economy, and said it’s “unacceptable” for the lender’s name to be associated with terrorism.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Itochu Corp. and Chinese builders are among companies that may bid for a $5 billion contract to build a network of roads and a suspension bridge across Turkey’s Dardanelles waterway, according to people familiar with the matter.

Domestic Politics

Turkey’s parliament votes in favor of constitutional reform in first round

Turkey’s parliament has voted in favour in a first round ballot on a constitutional bill that will extend President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers, which opposition politicians say could put the country at risk of growing authoritarianism.

The Uzbek man who was taken into custody on Monday and is believed to be the gunman who carried out an attack at an upscale Istanbul nightclub, killing 39 people early on New Year’s Day, has confessed, the Turkish authorities said on Tuesday.

Indictments regarding the jailed co-leaders of the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have been completed, with the prosecutor seeking up to 142 years in jail for Selahattin Demirtaş and up to 83 years in jail for Figen Yüksekdağ.

Three Turkish police officers were killed and nine more wounded when a roadside bomb hit a passing police bus in the largely Kurdish southeastern province of Diyarbakir on Monday, security sources said.

The new year arrived here in a terrible frenzy of gunfire and death, with 39 people killed as they celebrated at an upscale, waterside club. The massacre had seemed a grim omen, too, signaling that the coming year in Turkey might be as worrying as the last, with rattling, deadly terrorist attacks, a failed coup and mass arrests by a government that increasingly sees itself as surrounded by enemies.